Snow Fall
by Rocks-my-socks
Summary: A 'Mad Sanity' One Shot Harry spends a moment with his daughter Alice and recalls the first snow fall they shared...


**Disclaimer:** The Harry Potter Universe and lyrics to The Voice are not mine, but little Ally is.

**Author Note:** So five months have passed since Mad Sanity was finished and Alice and Harry have been kicking about in my head demanding a couple of one shots ever since. I gave in today when it started snowing and this scene evolved in my head. I'm glad I wrote it as I kind of have a better understanding of who Alice is now. I highly doubt this is going to be a one off. As I said this is to do with another fiction I wrote, Mad Sanity and if you haven't read it this won't make a lot of sense. For those of you that have, I hope you enjoy this continuation.

**Dedication:** To all you lovely people who read and reviewed Mad Sanity. Merry Christmas!

_I am the voice in the fields when the summer's gone  
The dance of the leaves when the autumn winds blow  
Ne'er do I sleep thoughout all the cold winter long  
I am the force that in springtime will grow_

**Snow Fall **

"Daddy?"

Harry looked up from where he had been sitting and smiled as Alice's head popped about the door of his office. Not a week had yet passed since she had returned from school to be with them over the holidays and he was still getting used to her being back again.

"Sweetheart, are you alright?"

Funny he should want to ask me what I wanted to ask him, she thought to herself. Alice had been concerned for him ever since she had returned.

She found Harry... distant for once. It wasn't like him.

He had never been that before. The fact that he was up in his office so close to the holidays said a lot to her. Normally he would have been downstairs with the younger children getting their coats and boots on.

"It's snowing." She announced.

"Is it now?"

She nodded.

He tried to smile but she knew what was getting to him. She always had known when he was upset over...

"When I was little, you always said it was ok miss her daddy. The same applies for you." Who she was went without saying between the two of them. "You can talk to me dad, you know that."

He looked up at her and for the first time really looked at her. She was fifteen years old. She was wise beyond her years and she had in her everything that had been good about her mother.

"I know that baby. And you're right. I am missing your mother." She reached out and took his hand. Near thirteen years had passed since the two of them had lost Ariana. But some days, she knew for him, the wound of grief was as green as it had been the day they had lost her.

The anniversary of her death was in just a couple of weeks. It was only natural he should feel down at the moment, she mused. She knew full well how much he had loved her mother. He had worshipped her practically.

He sniffed. He felt so guilty for missing her at times. He had Ginny and their children to consider now. But they could not be what she had been to him. They weren't part of what he had had with his sweetheart.

But then were she to return, she wouldn't be able to mean the kids did to him.

Love was relative, depending on the person.

But just because a time or a person was gone; it didn't mean you forget them. Or the love. That remained. It was permanent.

Raising his daughters hand to his lips he kissed it before he got up from where he had been sitting and embraced her.

"She loved you Ally, don't forget it." He said firmly. He wasn't sure how well she remembered her mother some days. He was at the same time, determined her memory be ever green in their lives.

"I won't." She promised and she cuddled into her father.

He felt such a connection to Ally. Because of her mother, because she had been born in the war and because there was under two decades in age between them. She knew full well he found it hard to punish her because she was at times more of a friend and a confident than a daughter to him. He had a different relationship with her to what he had with the others.

"Do you remember the first white Christmas we had?" he asked as he drew back from her. Every time it snowed it reminded him.

"No," she shook her head.

"_Why hasn't it snowed yet daddy?"_

"_I don't know baby... maybe it just isn't going to this year." _

_Harry looked into the living room of their cottage to see his child sitting on window seat looking out at their garden._

"_Turn that frown upside kid, its Christmas," he said to the four year old as he sat by her and put his arm about her. "Uncle Aberforth, Uncle Ron, Aunt Hermione and your granddad are going to be here soon. You don't want them to see you so miserable on Christmas Eve, do you?"_

"_Then make it snow!"_

"_I may be a wizard but I can't command the weather," he chuckled as he kissed her forehead. "Maybe next year angel." _

_She sighed. Christmas next year was ages away... why couldn't it be this year?_

"But you said it was our first white Christmas?"

"Yeah I did," said Harry as he sat down on the leather sofa in his office and allowed his daughter to snuggle into his side. "It was."

"So what happened?"

"You had a stroke of genius Ally, that's what happened!"

"_She isn't asleep yet, you know that right?" said Hermione as she helped clean up the dishes after dinner. Harry smirked as he washed up the muggle way. It gave him time to think he found._

_Alice had been in bed half an hour, supposedly trying to sleep. "Oh, yeah, I know. Well it is Christmas Eve, she is excited."_

"_Really? She seemed a bit upset to me over dinner," said Hermione as she raised an eye brow._

"_We cannot get a thing passed you can we, fairy god mother?" he said with a smirk. _

"_No, so don't even try it." She laughed._

_Harry sighed. "She wanted it to be a white Christmas, you know with snow and everything." _

_He had to say it was a shame. All the years since he had been at Hogwarts he had rarely known a Christmas without snow.__ Maybe one ... perhaps two. They had had it the year before, but he had hardly felt like playing in it. It had been the first Christmas since..._

"_Don't all little girls?" she asked._

"_I suppose. She is just going to have to make do without this year though."_

"_Harry?" _

_Turning to face Sirius, he nodded. "What's up?"_

"_Spud did her letter to Santa last week right?" he checked. Harry had said they were going to do it after Sirius had left them last Sunday. _

"_Yeah, we sat down and did it together." Harry confirmed._

"_Well, I think she just added a 'PS' under the tree." _

_Harry dried off his hand with a smile on his face and walked over to the door way his godfather stood in and through to the living room where he found Aberforth and Ron sitting down with grins on their __faces. "Santa's little helper just put a note under the tree." Ron confirmed._

"_Well, she needs to get to sleep or Santa is not going to be bringing her anything." Said Harry and he cringed... he sounded so.….old._

_Shaking off the feeling, he kneeled down. Sure enough, a folded pink piece of paper sat beside the various presents, but there was no name... funny, thought Harry. Why hasn't she put 'To Santa' on it?_

"Being you, you went straight to a higher authority," Harry chuckled as he played with the ends of wavy her hair.

"What do you mean?"

_Dear Mama, _

_Daddy says you are up in heaven now. Is that where the snow comes from? If it is, can you send some as my Christmas present?_

_I love you and miss you sooo much mama._

_Love Alice Lily. _

"And when we woke up the ground was covered." He recalled. "And you told everyone we met that mummy had sent the snow to you. You were so confident." He remembered how she had said it as it was matter of fact and he had believed it too, indulging her no end. That the snow was a gift to them both from Ariana. It was as if a part of her had been there with them that Christmas and he had felt so very close to her. He had needed to at that time. He still did...

"And Uncle Ron built me the snow man... dad, I do remember that!" she said with a smile.

"Good." He nodded, delighted as the memories flooded back into her mind.

"And uncle Abe had to go home half way through tea to check on the goats..."

"That's right."

She smiled up at him before she put her head on his shoulders and shut her eyes. A soft kiss was pressed to her forehead.

"Don't you worry about me, honey. I just think about her a lot this time of year." Harry sighed. It was inevitable. It was when he had taken her to the Yule Ball. And the next year they had conceived Ally in the Room of Requirement. Christmas really had been their time of year when they had been together and he could not forget that. He wouldn't want too

"Please come downstairs dad. For Jamie, Al and Lily." She said beseechingly.

She knew full well he had a lot of responsibilities. He was head of the Auror Department at the Ministry of Magic. But they were his kids. And they needed him that Christmas. He could surely forget work for a while, could he not?

"Ok baby, if that's what you want." He nodded and with a flick of his wand the documents he had been working on were put away. They stood up.

"Oh, something else, Dad." She said before she forgot. "This term I had a careers meeting with Professor McGonagall." She told him.

"And your going be with me in the Auror department in a couple of years?" he predicted. He didn't know why but he had always seen her as an Auror when she had grown up.

"Not quite."

His raised eye brow asked all the questions he needed too. "Well, before I went into the meeting I spoke with Uncle Neville and I was thinking about mama and I think I - I _want_ to be Healer, dad. I am going to work in St Mungos and I _am_ going to find the cure for wizards who lose their minds. Dad..." she sighed and involuntarily felt her lip wobble.

She had been thinking about it for a while and she did not knew why she had not told him sooner but then she knew she had been nervous over it. Deep down, she had always known that he had wanted her to join him as an Auror when she had got out of Hogwarts. But he had to know how deeply her mother and her fate still affected her life, so very deeply. If she could save other mothers and daughters, fathers and son from the terrible separation that she and Ariana had had to endure then that was just what she was going to do.

In one step her father came forward and wrapped her in his arms again.

"You're not disappointed in me, are you?"

"No Ally, I could never be that. I am so, so proud of you." He said as a tear skidded down his cheek. Pulling back he cupped her face. "I think you're going to be a great Healer," he said with confidence and conviction.

He should know. She had healed him enough times.

"Jamie will make a wicked little Auror," she tried to comfort him but he shook head.

"Only if that is what he wants. I know I am not always the best father to you children." He said and put his finger over her lips to stop her protesting. Sometimes he got caught up in work too much. At other times he wasn't sure what to do if they were in trouble because he had never had a father himself. He tried to work of his instincts; sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. He did try to do what was best for the four of them though. "But I want nothing more for you than I want your happiness, and that counts for all of you. You, Jamie, Al and Lily. You guys are my entire world." He said tenderly, before realising he was getting to emotional for his own good. She knew that. She did not have to be told. Enough. "So I think we should go have a snowball fight now, don't you?"

Wiping her eyes with her sleeves she nodded. "Yeah dad."

Half an hour later he found himself in the garden of their family house. He had sold the cottage when he had married for the second time. He could not move Ginny in to the house he had shared with Ariana. He didn't want her in their space. It would not have been right.

It had been time for a new start for them all.

Soaked through to the bone, Harry laughed as he threw snow balls back at the four little assassins to get him.

He could not cover all bases though, and some good shot hit him from behind so that the snow trickled passed his scarf and on to his back causing him to cringe.

He turned to see James behind him....

But behind James...

For one single moment in the falling snow, he could swear that she was there, that he could see her and her brilliant blue eyes and her radiant smile.

A gust of wind blew, and she went on her way, disguised by the snow fall she had brought to him once more.

_I am the voice in the wind and the pouring rain  
I am the voice of your hunger and pain  
I am the voice that always is calling you  
I am the voice, I will remain_

_Please Review! _


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